Putting Chips in Our Kids

With today’s parents getting more and more “helicopter” everyday I figured it wouldn’t be long before our society had a discussion about putting chips in our children to monitor and check up on them whenever possible. Well, that conversation may be starting. We already put chips in our pets and make sure our kid’s cellphones have GPS chips in them, so at what point to we just take the next step and literally put a chip inside our own children? I’m pretty sure some parents would sign up for that immediately: more protection, better cost-saving. Slavery is also a pretty safe, cheap way to deal with people too. Just sayin’.

Anyway, here’s what I think is the real crux of this conversation: overprotection.

Does overprotecting our children ultimately prepare them to be better, more functional adults?

I believe it doesn’t. It diminishes their coping skills, imbeds them will unrealistic expectations about their abilities and the nature of the real world, and teaches them dependency. As a high school teacher I cannot tell you how many “cut the cord” conversations I’ve had with parents in only the last five years. The pattern is very clear: parents feel guilty about not being around enough during their children’s formative years and spoil them; make contact time only positive and reward-driven; and create more of a buddy relationship than a parent-child one with their kids. I believe this guilt often manifests itself through overprotection.

This young generation has to deal with overbearing parents, the expectation that they will be rewarded for everything they do, and subsequently do not believe anything they do is truly their fault. How does that help them be better adults? It’s doesn’t in my opinion. Putting chips in our kids, while making parents feel better, will do little in the long-run to prepare our kids to grow into independent, strong adults. We all love and want the best for our kids. Sometimes that means cutting the cord rather than implanting a chip.